Remembering one of the ugliest parts of Charleston’s history, here stands the Slave Trading Complex Plaque. South Carolina received more enslaved people than any other mainland colony. From 1670 to 1808, around 260,000 enslaved Africans entered South Carolina. Many disembarked at Gadsden’s Wharf. It was located on the Cooper River in Charleston between Calhoun and Laurens Streets. It stretched from the harbor to East Bay Street.
Built in the 1760s and 1770s, Christopher Gadsden created the wharf complex. He was a prosperous merchant and Revolutionary War leader. He designed the Gadsden’s Banner, known as the Don’t Tread on Me flag. Gadsden’s Wharf complex became the largest in North America. It featured an 840-foot river wharf. It could berth six ships at once. The wharf had the capacity to hold up to 1,000 enslaved people on land.
Between 1783 and 1807, the international slave trade peaked. An estimated 100,000 West Africans landed here. Many were shipped elsewhere. However, many remained in South Carolina. Gadsden’s Wharf was the largest single point of entry for enslaved Africans in American history. Today, the International African American Museum stands on this site.
The 1808 ban ended the country’s participation in the International Slave Trade. This led to a domestic slave trading system. Charleston became a major center for collecting and selling enslaved people.
Between the drafting of the U.S. Constitution and the Civil War, over a million American-born slaves worked on cotton and sugar plantations. These plantations rapidly expanded in the lower South. Enslaved African Americans were sold in the open area north of the Old Exchange building. This was at Broad and East Bay Streets. In 1856, a new City Ordinance prohibited public sales. Ryan’s Auction Mart and other sales rooms opened along State, Queen, and Chalmers Streets.
The Old Slave Mart stands as possibly the only remaining slave auction site in South Carolina. It was part of a larger complex. This complex included a yard enclosed by a high brick wall. There was also a four-story brick building called a barracoon. It also had a slave jail, a kitchen, and a dead house. Auctions of the enslaved ended in November 1863.
The property changed hands many times. From 1878 to 1937, the building served as a Negro tenement and an auto repair shop. In 1938, Miriam B. Wilson bought the building. She established a museum featuring African and African American arts and crafts. Judith Wragg Chase and Louise Wragg Graves took over the Old Slave Mart Museum in 1964. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The City of Charleston acquired the property in 1988. In 2007, the site reopened as a historic site and museum.
Here at the Slave Trading Complex Plaque, reflect on Charleston’s complex history. Remember the lives altered and the legacies that persist. Consider the resilience and contributions of those who were brought here against their will.